


Moment of Truth

by InspectorBoxer



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-22 00:40:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7411610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InspectorBoxer/pseuds/InspectorBoxer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I can’t be objective about the biggest ongoing story in National City. I <i>haven’t</i> been objective because I <i>can’t<i> be with you. I need to step down.”</i></i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Moment of Truth

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be just a short one-shot while I sorted through some plot points on my Quiet Nights and Quiet Stars series. I should know by now that I can't do "short."
> 
> Thanks to zennie for looking this one over for me and giving me some helpful notes.

Red bloomed on Kara’s cream shirt and she stared at the splash of color as it spread, not fully understanding what she was seeing, what had happened, until the pain followed. 

Cat yelled her name but it echoed weirdly in her head as the tablet in her hands slipped from Kara’s grasp, the screen shattering as it hit the corner of the coffee table. A breath later, Kara followed, her knees buckling as the room darkened on the edges of her vision.

Warm arms caught her as she fell, guiding her carefully to the floor as the pain intensified, wringing a soft cry from Kara’s lips. 

“No, no, no,” Cat was whimpering. “Kara, stay with me. Stay with me.”

Distantly aware of a commotion, Kara watched as Winn and James tackled the unfamiliar man in Cat’s office. She’d heard yelling, had come to see what was wrong, registering too late the man had a gun, that he was pointing it at Cat. Then he’d pointed it at her.

The pain was breath robbing, but Cat’s touch on her cheek was the softest thing Kara had ever known. She turned into it, taking meager comfort where she could find it as oblivion called to her with a siren’s song she found nearly impossible to resist.

“How is this happening?” Cat pleaded before looking back at James and Winn. “How is this happening?” She yelled at them before turning back to Kara. “You’re supposed to be indestructible. You’re supposed to be bulletproof.”

“Cat,” Kara whispered, wanting nothing more than to comfort the older woman, wanting to take away the look of utter grief and terror on Cat’s features. 

Darkness rushed over her, and Kara was powerless to stop it.

****

Warmth soaked into her muscles, down into her bones. Light beckoned on the other side of closed eyelids, and Kara finally blinked them open, wincing as the sun lamps overhead nearly blinded her.

“Hey.” 

Hands touched her, eased through the hair at her temple. Kara knew that voice. It held a revered place inside her that went soul deep. “Alex?”

“Easy. Don’t move too much. You still don’t have your powers and you have a few more holes in you than you did yesterday.”

Memory returned in a sickening rush and Kara tried to sit up despite her sister’s warnings, earning her a few choice curse words. The pain that quaked through her was indescribable and Kara gasped as Alex ordered her to lie back down, forcing her back onto the sunbed with ease.

“What did I just say?” Alex asked in exasperation. “You got shot, Kara. If you were human, we’d have removed what appears to be your spleen, but right now we’re trying to keep you whole until your powers come back and sort things out.”

“Cat…” Kara hissed through the pain. “James and Winn…”

“They’re fine. They’re all fine.”

“And I thought a broken arm hurt.” Kara clutched at the throbbing wound, willing the pain to pass. “I’m never letting you go into another situation where you could be shot again.”

Alex’s eyebrows lifted, finding that claim to be dubious at best. “Uh-huh. If mom can’t stop me then neither can you.”

Drugs flushed through Kara’s system, a hazy, thick blanket of dissociation gelling between Kara and the agony. She could have kissed Alex for whatever her sister had just injected into her I.V. 

“Only bright spot in all this?” Alex teased, her fingers stroking soothingly through Kara’s hair once more. “Cat Grant is now firmly convinced you aren’t Supergirl. Apparently we should have shot you in front of her months ago,” she added with gallows humor.

Kara frowned, not liking the thought of Cat not knowing who she was, but she was rapidly becoming too drugged to understand why. “She deserves the truth.”

Alex was quiet a moment. “Maybe,” she said. “But it’s safer for you both this way, Kara.”

“I hate lying to her.” The drugs were loosening her tongue, and some part of Kara warned her to shut up before she said something she wasn’t ready to admit.

“I know.”

“I care about her, Alex.” Her voice was beginning to slur.

There was another pause before Alex’s hand stroked down her arm and tangled their fingers together. “I know that, too,” Alex said gently.

There was more Kara wanted to say about Cat Grant. More she wanted Alex to know, but the drugs dragged her under, down into a dream soaked sleep.

****

Cat stared at the view from her balcony but registered none of it, too lost in her own thoughts to see the beauty of the city around her. After tonight, she’d never see this view again. Cat wished she could enjoy it one last time. God knew she’d had to fight and claw hard to get it, but where it had once reassured her of her position of power in the world, now she only felt hollow.

It had been three days since Kara had been shot, since she’d held the girl in her arms, watching the life spill out of her onto Cat’s office floor. The carpet had already been replaced, and Cat wondered if she could be swapped out as quickly and efficiently.

Guilt gnawed at her stomach and no amount of whiskey was able to drown the sensation. She’d yelled right back at the gunman who’d somehow gotten past security and charged into her office, screaming at her that she’d ruined his life. Winn and James had been standing there, on the receiving end of a blistering lecture about Supergirl and keeping secrets, when he’d stormed in. Cat thought if she shouted loud enough Kara would hear and come running. That her Supergirl would save the day.

But she’d been wrong, so very wrong about Kara. The girl wasn’t who she’d believed her to be, and Cat’s mistake had nearly gotten someone precious killed.

The tumbler shook in her hand as she took another sip. 

“Ms. Grant?”

Cat whirled, startled, and her glass slipped from nerveless fingers, but Supergirl caught it with a crooked smile, setting it on the railing.

“Sorry,” the superhero said. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Anger, irrational and blistering, flooded through her and Cat lashed out, shoving Supergirl’s shoulders. The younger woman didn’t so much as flinch, of course, but she blinked in surprise at the ineffectual assault.

“Why?” Cat slurred slightly, knowing she was too drunk to have this conversation, too emotional, that she was throwing blame onto a person who was completely blameless in this whole mess. “Why couldn’t you be her?”

Blue eyes softened as Supergirl straightened with understanding. “Cat…”

“She’d be safe if you were her. She wouldn’t be hurt, couldn’t be hurt.” Tears pricked the corners of Cat’s eyes and she turned away. “I led her right into danger. Could have gotten her killed.”

Supergirl reached out, her fingers closing gently on Cat’s arm before she turned the woman back to look at her. “But you didn’t. Cat, there’s something you should...”

“I was so damn sure I was right that I didn’t even hesitate to put her in harm’s way.” Cat shook her head, uninterested in whatever Supergirl had to say. “How am I supposed to trust my judgement now? How is anyone?”

Those blue eyes, so like Kara’s own, hurt Cat to even look at them. “Go,” she ordered. “I can’t see you right now. You just remind me of what a fool I’ve been. What a fool I am,” Cat added bitterly. “And I have my resignation to finish.” She staggered slightly back toward her office, missing the ripple of shock that rocked the other woman back a step.

“Resignation?” Supergirl asked, following a moment later as Cat settled, less than gracefully, at her desk.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be sure my replacement will be just as big a cheerleader for you as I was.”

“Was?” Supergirl came closer, looking at Cat from the other side of her desk with a stricken expression. Cat hadn’t been able to hurt her physically, but she realized she’d just wounded her emotionally.

Cat waved a dismissive hand. “Relax. I’ll still root for you over the bad guys, I just won’t be your champion in the press anymore.”

“Cat…”

“I thought you were her,” Cat said again, and this time a tear broke free before she angrily dashed it away. “I was so convinced. So damn sure I was right. Kara always seemed to disappear right when you showed up to save the day. But I forgot a golden rule of journalism. Never believe anything without proof.”

“Ms. Grant,” Supergirl’s voice wavered and Cat looked up at her again, her chest aching.

“I let my speculation convince me instead of evidence. Started confusing the two of you, seeing you in her, her in you. Even now, even though I finally have proof that I was wrong about everything, I look at you and I see her.”

Cat swallowed and dropped her gaze. “I’m sorry, but nearly all those things I wrote about you… the praise… the critiques… they were meant for her… for Kara. All the things I could never tell the damn girl to her face.”

“You weren’t wrong.” Something in Supergirl’s tone made Cat look at her once more. Startled to see tears in her blue eyes, Cat went still.

“My powers just came back a few hours ago.”

With alcohol dulling her senses, her mind, it took Cat a few moments of staring at Supergirl to understand. “Came back?” she asked, confused.

“I lost them five days ago. It doesn’t happen often, but if I overuse them, especially my heat vision, they can go MIA on me for several days.”

Slowly, Cat got back to her feet. “What are you saying?”

“You weren’t wrong,” Supergirl repeated, coming around the desk to stand before her, and Cat realized the younger woman was shaking. “Cat… I am her. I’m Kara.”

Cat shook her head. “But you…” Her fingers reached out, hovering over the area where Kara had been shot but never touching it. “You were bleeding. You were… you were dying,” she accused, her voice breaking on the last word.

Supergirl swallowed, moved by Cat’s display of emotion. “When I lose my powers, I’m as human as you are,” she explained softly. “If you had known that, if I had told you my secret any of the times I wanted to, you would have protected me. There isn’t a doubt in my mind about that. What happened to me isn’t your fault.”

Hazel eyes jerked up to Supergirl’s features, the truth slowly sinking through the whiskey haze clouding Cat’s mind. “Kara?”

Supergirl smiled tightly before she reached out, pulling Cat into a hug they both desperately needed.

Cat’s fingers fisted in Supergirl’s cape, holding on for dear life. Even inebriated, her mind was telling her to step away, to put distance between herself and this tempting girl, but Cat’s body refused, needing her heat, needing her touch as much as she needed air.

“I’m sorry,” Kara whispered, and this close, Cat recognized the scent of her, the familiar thrill of her touch on Cat’s body. “I should have told you a long time ago.”

Cat pulled back slightly, demanding her brain to focus. Even dulled, however, her mind was as sharp as many at full capacity. “Why are you telling me now? Why now when you’d finally convinced me that I was wrong?”

“Because I…” Kara searched her face for a moment before dropping her gaze. “Because I… care… about you. Because I trust you. Because I need you, now more than ever. It’s selfish of me, Cat, to tell you. I’m putting you more at risk, but I…”

“Kara…” Cat said again, her voice mournful as she reluctantly let the younger woman go. “Maybe we should have this conversation later.”

Supergirl blinked in confusion. “But…”

“I’m afraid I’m not at my best,” Cat murmured, knowing that was an understatement. “I’m sure you have a city to patrol and I have a resignation to finish so…”

“Finish?” Kara blurted. 

“That wasn’t the only reason I was resigning.”

Kara stood there, shaking her head in disbelief. 

“My judgment is impaired,” Cat told her. “And I don’t mean because of the amount of whiskey I’ve consumed this evening.” She moved past her, willing herself not to look at the younger woman should her resolve falter. “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “For telling me the truth. And I’m… relieved you’re all right, but you should go.”

Cat started to sit down, to make final notes on the document she’d printed and laid on her desk earlier, but Kara snatched it up, tearing it into pieces that littered Cat’s desk like confetti when she was done. “I’m not letting you do this.”

“The printer is full of paper, Kara. I’ll just make another.”

“Then I’ll melt the damn printer,” Kara threatened.

Cat gripped the back of her chair. “Please,” she said tiredly. “I just want to get this over.”

“I don’t understand. You were right...”

“My judgment may not be impaired about that, and while it’s a relief to know I wasn’t mistaken, I’m afraid I still need to step down.”

“Why?” Kara demanded and Cat could see the desperation in the other woman’s eyes.

“Because in the moment where I thought I’d been wrong about you, I realized something else. Something worse.”

“Worse?” 

“I’m in love with you.”

The words hung in the air between them. Kara couldn’t have looked more shocked if Cat had slapped her.

“I can’t be objective about the biggest ongoing story in National City. I _haven’t_ been objective because I _can’t_ be with you. I need to step down.”

“Cat,” Kara whispered.

“I’m a middle-aged woman apparently in the throes of a midlife crisis where I want to sleep with my former assistant, who, incidentally, is half my age. What’s next? A shiny sports car?” Cat scoffed. “CatCo deserves someone who isn’t so infuriatingly cliched at the helm. That’s obviously not me.” She was trembling now, not wanting to hear the gentle rejection of her feelings she was sure was coming.

“You think that’s cliched?” Kara asked softly. “Try being the former assistant who’s in love with her boss.”

Slowly, Cat looked up, wondering when Kara had gotten so close. “You…” she began only to have Kara’s mouth claim her own, scorching through the fog of alcohol clouding her mind and senses. Their bodies brushed against one another, and if Cat thought she was on fire before it was nothing compared to the heat that raced across her skin and sunk deep and low in her stomach, making her moan into Kara’s mouth. 

When they finally parted minutes later, Cat realized she was sitting on the edge of her desk, Kara standing between her parted thighs with a blissful smile on her lips.

“Wow,” Supergirl said, proving adorably that she was, indeed, Cat’s former erstwhile assistant in a single utterance.

They stared at each other a moment, the truths finally laid bare between them.

Kara drew in a surprised breath when she felt Cat’s fingers trace over the area where she’d been shot. “Like it didn’t even happen,” she promised. “But right now, in this moment with you, I’m glad it did.”

Cat swallowed, overwhelmed “Kara…”

“You’re not resigning,” Kara said, her tone firming. “That’s running, Cat, and you don’t run. And you don’t need to run from this. From us.” 

“Us,” Cat murmured, not denying the flutter the word caused deep in her chest. “An ‘us’ could be very difficult.”

Kara slid her fingertips along the desk, resting them on either side of Cat’s hips as she brought them face to face. “Everything worth having is. You taught me that.”

Cat suspected Kara would have a logical rebuttal for every excuse and fighting the Girl of Steel was a battle she couldn’t win. She didn’t want to. 

“But honestly,” Kara continued, “‘difficult’ is building a worldwide media empire from nothing. ‘Difficult’ is giving up your family and watching your planet die.”

Cat’s gaze sharpened on the younger woman.

“A few snarky words in the press, a few whispers behind our backs… it might not be pleasant and I might be tempted to laser someone’s face if they say anything that hurts you, but Cat… loving you will be easy if you just let me.”

Another tear spilled down Cat’s cheek and Kara reached out, catching it on her thumb before gently wiping it away.

Sighing, Cat closed her eyes. It wasn’t as simple as Kara was making it out to be, but Cat suspected they both knew that. They both knew that and still desperately wanted this anyway. “So what do we do now?”

Kara took a deep, shaky breath. “I take you home.”

Cat’s eyebrows lifted in surprise.

“Not to… although I…” Kara cleared her throat. “You’re a little…”

“Drunk?” Cat drawled.

Supergirl gave her a tight smile that looked more like a grimace. “And my sister nearly had a conniption about me using my powers tonight. I’m under strict orders to take it easy.”

“I see.” A thread of amusement wormed its way through her and Cat couldn’t help the trace of a smile from forming on her lips.

“But...we could watch a movie. Share a bowl of popcorn.”

How something so simple, so domestic, could sound so appealing, Cat had no idea. “Is that your idea of a fun Friday night?”

“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”

Cat’s smile got a little wider. “I suppose I could be enticed, if...”

“If?”

Slowly, Cat crossed her ankles behind Kara’s legs, urging the younger woman even closer. She could live a lifetime with Kara looking at her the way she was now. “If,” Cat said again. “I can expect a good night kiss when the evening is over.”

Kara’s smile was blinding. “I can do that,” she said. “Does that mean I’m not allowed to make out with you on the couch, though?” Her eyes sparkled mischievously.

“Oh,” Cat breathed, anticipation blooming in her stomach as the plan for the evening took shape. “That’s your proposal, is it?”

Kara nodded before kissing her again, a taste of things to come. “If that’s okay with you,” she said against Cat’s mouth when they parted.

This wasn’t the resignation Cat had planned for her evening, but resigning herself to a future with Kara Danvers seemed like a much wiser and more fulfilling option.

“In that case, take me home, Supergirl.”


End file.
